Pregnancy & HIV MTCT

Treating babies with nevirapine (Viramune) for 6 months while breast-feeding significantly reduced the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission, though it did not alter the likelihood of infant mortality, according to a study of HIV positive African women and their babies described in the January 21, 2012, issue of The Lancet.

HIV positive mothers who use a lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra or Alluvia) antiretroviral regimen can reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to their infants during extended supplemental breastfeeding, supporting recent World Health organization (WHO) guidelines.

Public health experts recommend that HIV positive women in resource-limited countries should breastfeed their babies. Women in industrialized countries who are on effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) and have undetectable viral load should also be advised that breastfeeding may be an acceptable option, according to an opinion piece by Pamela Morrison, an international board-certified lactation consultant, and colleagues in the August 5, 2011, advance online edition of AIDS.

World leaders at a U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS last week adopted a consensus declaration setting targets for global universal access to antiretroviral therapy and elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission.